Did anyone see "Hip Hop Babylon" on MTV this morning?

[fred da warrior]

It comes on again at 8pm (central) tonight. Actually it was pretty damn good.

[ September 07, 2003, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: fred ]

[Erob the One]

Good documentary. I have to admit that I am getting a little tired of the pioneers of rap always talking about money. It was a different game back then as opposed to now. It makes you wonder if they really were doing it for the love of the music.

Erob

[mhd]

good looking out fred, that joint was incredible, that could have been a theatrical release, very impressive

[music]

sign your life over to the new slavery as an artist.

[VEESTER]

I caught it last night. It was good!

[Mr 1977]

Excellent show! Insightful. My question is why can't they(Def Jam) work Joe Budden's CD the same way that Motown is workin KEM's "Kemistry" CD? Kem's joint(which is hot) came out in February, and they are still adding his single to R-n-B stations in September. Is his CD as good as they(manager& Kevin Lyles) think it is. Cream does rise...

[racerx]

. My question is why can't they(Def Jam) work Joe Budden's CD the same way that Motown is workin KEM's "Kemistry" CD?

Record companies like most other organizations will set you up just to fail and use the loss as a tax write off....sad but true...

[Mike Johnson]

Originally posted by Erob the One:
Good documentary. I have to admit that I am getting a little tired of the pioneers of rap always talking about money. It was a different game back then as opposed to now. It makes you wonder if they really were doing it for the love of the music.I watched most of it last night. It's certainly arguable as to whether or not performers get into this (from any genre) purely for the art without an eye to some financial gain. Everybody wants to eat. However, the message that the "pioneers" were pounding home was how dangerous a game it's become, and how that danger is primarily fueled by money.

The brother (I forget his name, he's half of Naughty by Nature) hit the nail on the head a little when he pointed out that some of the flash-n-bling comes out of the notion that you have urban, under-educated youths who (if for just a minute) have found a way to flaunt their wealth in the white man's face with the attitude of "see, I still it made despite my disposition." What the documentary further explored, however, was the irresponsibility of squandering it all (in stupid ways), and really forsaking the advantages of celebrity-dom by continuing to act like knuckleheads and ending up back where they started or worse - Babylon was preceded by another documentary on ODB after his release from prison. Somebody tell my why brotha man felt the need to peddle drugs when he was already rolling in money?

IMO, rap continues to survive financially because of the whole money aspect associated with it, and because it's more than a music genre... it's a mass culture. But it's on real shakey ground and getting to the point where even the dopest beats won't be able to sustain it. I don't think the pioneers are envious. Maybe they're trying to grasp how virulent it's become.

[ September 08, 2003, 10:50 PM: Message edited by: Mike Johnson ]

[RX]

saw it - let me get out my complaint before my only comment - why did q-tip have to be so stiff and unlife-like hosting? yuk!

anyhoo, i KNOW that the pioneers are hurting to see how mainstream hip hop has gotten so out of control...i mean, they can sense how deadly, unfruitful and unempowering mainstream hip hop is, yet the shawtees continue to promote that ill way of living...

you can take the shawtee out the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out the shawtee...fame and wealth does not make one automatically intelligent...

[Djay Raare]

it was cool I liked it...